(front row L-R) KFOG radio personalities Renee Richardson (cq), Dave Morey (cq), and Peter Finch (cq) broadcast their morning show live from (back row L-R) Kevin and Lona Giovannoni’s Alameda, Calif. home on Friday, June 20, 2003. The Alameda residents won a contest which brought the popular radio station to their home. (Sherry LaVars/Staff Archives)

Peter Finchof KFOG was one of Dave Morey’s sidekicks for 15 years. They bantered while broadcasting from their 11th floor studios in San Francisco, Calif. Nov. 21, 2008. (Karl Mondon/Staff Archives)

Fans, pop cultural observers and former disc jockeys are reacting with sadness and anger to the news that iconic radio station KFOG (104.5-FM) will soon leave the Bay Area airwaves.

On Monday, Cumulus Media Inc. announced that the San Francisco alternative rock station will flip to a simulcast of KNBR (680-AM) sports radio on Friday, Sept. 6. In a media release, Cumulus said, “It’s never easy to say goodbye to a station, and we want to thank the staff, listeners, and advertisers who together made KFOG the legendary and beloved station that so many of us in San Francisco had the opportunity to enjoy.”

Not surprisingly, many locals instantly blasted Cumulus for what they believe was the company’s blatant lack of regard for the station’s rich legacy.

Commenting on the Bay Area News Group’s websites, Alejandro Moreno wrote, “What else would you expect from corporate soulless Cumulus? Being bought up by Big Media was a death knell, the bell tolled long ago, it was only a matter of time. Their first mistake was letting (disc jockey) Dave Morey go, the final nail in the coffin was (DJ) Rosalie Howarth. Godspeed, and good riddance too, because after you sell your soul, the memories are more important than the empty shell of a facade.”

Mark Hutchings added: “I listened nearly every day until a few years ago when the format started changing. Shame on those who brought this change to the FM.”

And another reader with the website alias of bn95 wrote, “Sad. They drove this magnificent institution into the ground. There’s still plenty of appetite for the type of authenticity this station delivered in spades.”

Bay Area media blogger Rich Lieberman also took a fiery stance against Atlanta-based Cumulus, which purchased KFOG in 2005. He wrote that “rotating personnel, format rearrangements, incompetent programming decisions and key players lost through management incompetence accelerated KFOG’s demise.”

For others, the news brought on a wave of nostalgia. They took a few moments to reminisce about KFOG’s glory days that began in the early 1980s — when it was a free-form station that catered to fans of album-oriented and classic rock ‘n’ roll.

Howarth, a former disc jockey who worked at KFOG 34 years, said the “finality of it all” is what hit her so hard on Monday.

“As long as KFOG was on the air, there was some hope,” she said. “There was a chance she could get her groove back. But now that the call letters have been taken away, the dream is over.”

Howarth, who lives in Walnut Creek, continued to routinely check on the station and root for a comeback.

“I still kept it on a pre-set button in the car. I think it sounds great, for what they’re going for,” she said. “They (the new regime) gave it their all, for sure. But it’s hard to lure a whole new audience if the old audience has left the building.”

Another former DJ, Dred Scott, marked the end on his Facebook page, calling it the “least surprising news of the day.” But he added that, “As someone who put in two tours of duty (18 years apart!), I’ll never forget the excitement of going to North Beach to hang out before my first shift on big-time San Francisco radio. Sad.”

And there was much love for KFOG expressed on Twitter:

KFOG had the greatest call letters ever – EVERYONE had it on preset dial from grandma to grandkids – foghead stickers – sad to see it go – another part of my childhood growing up in SF gone – a classic station that deserves the love it’s been getting today 😞

We’d like to thank kfog for spinning 36 years of alternative music, growing up with us, and filling our ears with joy.–You pioneered alternative rock radio alongside @live105 for the Bay Area and remained a… https://t.co/99YF1L21Xc

One Twitter user saw the station’s demise as a lost connection to his late father:

#KFOG was my Dad's go to station. It was one of the last things I had that could make me feel that he was still present. Never did I think this day would come. Then again, I thought the same about #LIVE105.

Some former listeners saw the death of KFOG as just a formality — an inevitable development, given that the station began losing its luster years ago.

All my local people are freaking out about the demise of KFOG and I’m over here dry eyed because I started mourning in 2008 when Dave Morey retired and I finished when they cancelled the Sunday Mourning Acousic show with Rosalee last Spring. #kfog

Howarth, who once presided over the popular Sunday KFOG program “Acoustic Sunrise,” said that she has been in contact with former KFOG employees with the hopes of organizing some kind of “wake,” but had no firm plans in place yet.

“What we had was so special,” she said. “The Fogheads made up a real community. We were there for each other. And that kind of brand success is truly magic. If you lose it, you can’t get it back.”